I COOK, A LOT... …Often with the clock ticking and the ‘I’m hungry’ anthem gaining traction. Breakfast, lunch, supper. Snacks too. Children can eat an extraordinary amount, all things considered. It’s therefore essential that this food is nutritional, delicious and relatively easy to produce. My background as a chef has helped enormously in this regard. When cooking for my three children (and often those of others), I try to cook with imagination, ease and, for the most part, speed. I am lucky. But for some, the task of producing food – day in, day out – seems like a relentless chore. Short on time and week-night weary for imagination, it is all too easy to fall into a cookery loop. Spaghetti Bolognese Monday and shepherd’s pie Thursday offer an easy, albeit lobotomizing, rhythm to the week. Children are notorious when it comes to what they will and won’t put in their mouths. Contrary, wilful, at worst fussy, having to cajole kids into eating food they don’t want is one of life’s most frustrating, time-consuming and headbangingly awful tasks. Here’s my suggestion: turn cooking on its head. Heal the schism in family cookery. The notion of children’s food is something to baulk at. Smiley-faced food is ridiculous – food should look like food. Make food interesting. And children will then be interested in it. Children like flavour-FUL food, as do the grown-ups cooking and eating it themselves. Make vegetables core to the family diet. Make them exciting and joyful. Cook a cabbage with bulgur, tomato and garlic, ‘sweeten’ it with cinnamon and allspice and serve it with plain yoghurt to dollop and toasted seeds to sprinkle over. Where once cabbage might have sat untouched on the side of the plate, that same cabbage is now golloped greedily. Having to cook separate food for children is laborious and unnecessary. Whether parents choose to eat an early supper with their children or whether it’s eaten separately, the prospect of cooking just one meal is appealing. The recipes in this book are versatile enough to appease everyone and are transferable to a more adult-appropriate supper time (along with extra salt, perhaps, and a glass of wine). More than just writing a book, in an apron and on a crusade, I’m keen to inspire and invigorate the concept of family cookery. Standing at the stovetop, I cook with affection and with an eye for sustenance. The only drudgery is the washing up, of which there is usually quite a pile. Elbows down. Knives and forks at the ready, and we’re off …
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SUMMERY FATTOUSH Best to make this chopped bread salad when ingredients are in season and full of flavour, so here I offer you both a summery and a wintry fattoush (see page 36). Sumac gives the salad its characteristic tang. Try to chop the vegetables roughly uniform in size, so that each mouthful has an equal mix of this and that.
Serves 4 - 4 pitta breads or flatbreads - 75ml olive oil - 500g ripe tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, chopped - 1 bunch of spring onions, sliced - 150g radishes, finely sliced - 1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped - 2 baby gem lettuces, or other crunchy lettuce, chopped - 1 large bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped - 1 small bunch of fresh mint, roughly chopped - 1 large lemon (preferably unwaxed) - 1 clove of garlic, crushed - salt and freshly ground black pepper - 2 tsp sumac - 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. 2. Cut the pitta bread into approximately 2.5cm squares, place on a baking tray and toss with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until toasted and golden. Put to one side. 3. Put all the chopped salad vegetables into a large bowl with the toasted pitta and add the chopped herbs. 4. To make the dressing, juice the lemon, finely grate the zest, and put into a bowl with the rest of the olive oil. Add the crushed garlic, to taste. Pour the dressing over the assembled salad and mix well, adding salt and pepper to taste. 5. Sprinkle the salad with the sumac and chilli flakes (if using). 6. You can serve the fattoush immediately or, if you’d rather, leave it for half an hour for the flavours to mingle and the pitta to absorb the dressing – giving you a chewier rather than crisp pitta.
VARIATIONS Serve with 100g of feta crumbled through, or with some salted labneh balls (see page 20) on the side, or alongside some grilled or barbecued meat/fish or the brick chicken (see page 140).
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MUSSELS WITH HARISSA & CORIANDER Serves 4 - 75g butter, diced - 1 small onion or 2 shallots, thinly sliced - 1 clove of garlic, sliced - 150ml boiling water - 1kg fresh mussels, debearded and scrubbed - 1–2 tbsp harissa paste (depending how hot you want the mussels to be) - 1 small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves roughly chopped - juice of 1 lemon or 1 orange
1. In a pot (with a tight fitting lid) big enough to fit everything (remembering that the mussels need lots of space to expand), melt half the butter over a medium heat and cook the onion or shallots for a couple of minutes, until softened. 2. Add the garlic and cook till fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the water and bring to a simmer. 3. Add the mussels and harissa, then cover with the lid and simmer until the mussels open (this should take about 5 minutes), shaking the pot gently a couple of times during that time. Discard any mussels that refuse to open. 4. Stir in the coriander, the rest of the butter and the citrus juice. 5. Serve with a pile of crusty bread or toast that has been rubbed with a raw clove of garlic.
RAISIN, PINE NUT & ORANGE TOPPING FOR FISH Serves 4 - 50g raisins - 400–600g fillets of oily or flat fish (e.g. mackerel or small plaice) - salt - 2 tbsp olive oil - juice and finely grated zest of ½ a small orange - ½ tbsp red wine vinegar - 4 tbsp pangrattato (see page 37) or toasted breadcrumbs - 50g pine nuts, toasted (see page 64) - ½ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed - chilli flakes (optional) - 1 small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. 2. Soak the raisins in warm water and set aside for 10 minutes. Drain then pat dry. 3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Lay out the fish fillets skin side up, season with salt and drizzle with half the olive oil. 4. Whisk together the orange juice, vinegar and the rest of the olive oil and pour over the fish. 5. Mix together the breadcrumbs, soaked raisins, pine nuts, fennel seeds and orange zest, and the chilli flakes, if using. Scatter over the fish, flesh side up, and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes until the fish is cooked. The topping should be crisp and golden. 6. Remove from the oven and use a fish slice to transfer the fish on to plates, scooping up any stray topping. Scatter over the parsley. 7. Spoon over any remaining cooking juices and serve.
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BEETROOT & CHOCOLATE CAKE Cooked beetroot moistens the cake crumb. It also adds an earthy and discreet sweetness to the cocoa powder.
Makes one 20cm cake - 200ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing - 100g rice flour - 100g ground almonds - 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda - 75g cocoa powder - 250g caster sugar - 250g cooked and peeled beetroot (about 4 small ones) - 3 eggs
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking parchment. 2. Mix the rice flour, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and sugar in a large bowl. 3. Purée the beetroot in a food processor or blender, then add the eggs one at a time, whizzing between each addition. 4. Pour in the oil and process until smooth. 5. Add the beetroot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. 6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the cake is firm to touch. 7. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
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